Gravity Flip

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Gravity Flip is a free online one-button runner where the button does not jump — it swaps which way is down. The runner goes forward on its own and never stops, and every block ahead is a question about which surface to be on. What makes it a game rather than a coin toss is that the flip is not instant: the runner falls at a fixed rate, so crossing the lane takes about half a second, and a block you can see is one you had to act on several cells ago. Flipping mid-fall is allowed, because a commitment you cannot change punishes a player for reacting, and the fall is already the commitment. Coins sit two cells before each block in the row it leaves free — a row the runner only occupies while falling, so a coin is a flip timed to sweep through it rather than a line you can sit on. Everything is in cells and ticks and measured with reaction-time bots: a hundred-millisecond reaction passes between three hundred and sixty and four hundred and sixty blocks, a three-hundred-millisecond one between two hundred and thirty and two hundred and sixty, and a six-hundred-millisecond one between forty-five and a hundred. The blocks reach three to six rows into a nine-row lane, and that depth is the whole balance: at two to four rows a runner who flipped and was still falling was safe in the middle whatever was coming, and the quick bot cleared two and a half thousand blocks without ever dying.

How to play Gravity Flip

1. Press Play. The runner sets off along the floor and never stops.
2. Press space, or tap the lane, to turn gravity over. The runner falls to the other surface.
3. The fall is not instant — crossing the lane takes about half a second, so a flip commits you for that long.
4. You can flip again mid-fall. Reacting to something you have just seen should not be punished.
5. Blocks reach out of the floor or the ceiling, three to six rows into a lane nine rows tall.
6. That means the middle of the lane is not safe. Being halfway across when a deep block arrives is a hit.
7. Passing a block scores sixty. Passing one without having flipped since the last scores twenty-five more.
8. Coins sit two cells before each block, in the row the block leaves free — so they are collected on the way through a flip, not by sitting still.
9. A hit costs a life and the block is taken away rather than re-run: the runner cannot stop, so putting it back means hitting it again at the same speed.
10. Three lives. The lane gets faster and the blocks come closer together, so every run ends.

Tips

• Flip early. The fall takes about sixteen ticks and a block only gives you as many as the gap, so the flip that clears it started several cells back.
• Read the surface, not the block. The bright bar at the top or the bottom is the live one, and it is quicker to read than the shape ahead.
• Do not flap. Two flips in quick succession leave you in the middle of the lane, which is the one place a deep block always catches you.
• The steady bonus is real money. A run of blocks that all want the same surface is worth twenty-five a piece for doing nothing.
• Take coins on flips you were making anyway. A flip spent only on a coin costs you the position for the next block.
• Measured against reaction-time bots, a hundred milliseconds is worth about four hundred blocks and six hundred milliseconds about seventy. Most of the gap is in reading ahead rather than in reacting faster.
• After a hit the block is gone and you are still moving. Look at the next one immediately rather than at where you went wrong.
• When the speed doubles, the gaps have closed too. Stop trying to see each block and settle into the rhythm of the alternation.

FAQ